After the Social Democrats lost the state election in Rhineland‑Palatinate, Berlin’s SPD candidate Steffen Krach has asked his national party to present concrete plans to relieve low‑ and middle‑income earners.
“We will win votes again if people feel us in their daily lives as the party of social justice” Krach told the Tagesspiegel (Tuesday edition). “When wages can no longer keep up with costs, reforms must be enacted to ease the burden on lower and medium earners”.
He says there’s a deep sense of injustice in the public, a sentiment that the CDU is further inflaming. “Criticising alone isn’t enough; we must also move forward with proposals” he added.
To illustrate his point, Krach cited the debate over rising petrol prices in Germany, which he attributes to the Iran war. He remarked that a Porsche driver doesn’t care if gasoline prices soar. Still, “we have to be the lobby for the Porsche driver, who must turn every euro earned twice”.
He called for stopping oil companies that have earned more because of the war, demanding that “excess profits” be withdrawn. For repeat offenders, he even suggested a final solution: “talk about revoking licenses”.
Krach pointed to his party’s recent inheritance‑tax reform proposal as proof of what is feasible. The plan would relieve those with small and mid‑range inheritances, while simultaneously taxing the huge sums that have so far slipped through the tax net unjustly. “This is the right approach” he said.